Kleptocrats and Gun Control from "Guns Germs and Steel"

[Doctor Rick]

For the past several months I have been slowly reading through "Guns Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. Dry reading but i recommend it, and for those of you who spend all of your time reading penal code you may even find it lively. If you want to read about gun control you first have to persevere through 250+ pages about crops, livestock, and language.
page 276-277 of the paperback version.
"For any ranked society, whether a chiefdom or a state, one thus has to ask: why do commoners tolerate the transfer of the fruits of their hard labor to kleptocrats?"
"What should an elite do to gain popular support while still maintaining a more comfortable lifestyle than commoners? Kleptocrates throughout the ages have resorted to a mixture of four solutions."
"1. Disarm the populace, and arm the elite."
"2. Make the masses happy by redistributing much of the tribute received, in popular ways."
"3. Use the monopoly of force to promote happiness, by maintaining public order and curbing violence. This is potentially a big and underappreciated advantage of centralized societies over noncentralized ones." (Apparently murder was the most common cause of death in previous smaller band/tribal societies)
"4. The remaining way for kleptocrats to gain public support is to construct an ideology or religion justifying kleptocracy.

[GoodEyeSniper]

Sounds interesting

[MrClamperSir]

Sounds relevant. Where do the germs come into play (I'm a bit of a germaphobe)?

[DippyPower]

Sounds relevant. Where do the germs come into play (I'm a bit of a germaphobe)?

In about 1492.

[Sutcliffe]

Interesting read

The germs portion of the book deals with the rise of human society and how our gathering of livestock and concentration of population allowed for epidemics to jump from animals to humans.
I found it entertaining and not dry at all. Different expectations is all.
With the exception of syphilis all epidemics seemed to originate in Eurasia. Aparantly native americans contributed something to their European betters after all!

[navyinrwanda]

1. Disarm the populace, and arm the elite.
2. Make the masses happy by redistributing much of the tribute received, in popular ways.
3. Use the monopoly of force to promote happiness, by maintaining public order and curbing violence. This is potentially a big and underappreciated advantage of centralized societies over noncentralized ones. (Apparently murder was the most common cause of death in previous smaller band/tribal societies)
4. The remaining way for kleptocrats to gain public support is to construct an ideology or religion justifying kleptocracy.

Don't we call this Obamamania now?

[jrcarr2]

For those adverse to reading:

Here is the National Geographic special based on his book.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

[Can'thavenuthingood]

For those adverse to reading:

Here is the National Geographic special based on his book.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

This is an excellent series.
If you can download it and watch it later. Especially you folks in school whether college or high school, you'll be using what you learn in the book or DVD to mix it up with the Professor or Teacher.
Its also a great place to start any sort of related research.

Each segment is about an hour or so I think.
You might even get the DVD from NetFlix.

Vick

[AlexDD]

Great book and series. Watch the series first, then read the book if you are still interested.

Much of the book deals with the premise of geographic "luck" of why certain areas progressed more quickly.

[dixieD]

Yeah great series and book. It is a fascinating read in my opinion, and offers a viable explanation for the disproportionate power between Americas and Europe, and the difficulty in colonizing Africa. In the series I get bugged by the Professor's aversion to firearms. He comes across as not enjoying the opportunity to shoot the firearms.

[movie zombie]

yes, the difficulty in colonizing africa based on the white man's determination to set country boundaries which limited a group's ability to hunt/gather and/or participate in agriculture..... a fascinating read this book.....and these effects are still seen and felt in africa.

mz

ps germs/viruses were a great weapon in 1492 and continue to be so.

[Glock22Fan]

ps germs/viruses were a great weapon in 1492 and continue to be so.

Was it Ghengis Khan (b. 1162) who catapulted the heads of the dead into beseiged cities to induce epidemics and plague? Certainly, his armies spread bubonic plague wherever they went.